FL FL - Amy Billig, 17, Coconut Grove, 5 March 1974

[DD Byrd]

If she was hitchhiking, maybe the gallery was her 2nd destination and she went somewhere further away first. That opens up the possibility that she wasn't kidnapped and something actually happened at the 2nd location.

Construction workers saw a girl hitchhiking, and it was later deemed Amy based on a fairly common appearance at the time. Unless one of them knew her, or saw her face long enough to (accurately) ID her we don't know it was her.

But if she did get a ride for even a short distance it would make sense she knew the driver or other occupant/s or both and as @Friday Fan said, took it as an opportunity to catch up (pre texts, etc). It would seem easy enough to verify with her friends if she indeed had lunch plans. If not, but she was going to the gallery for money, there are a lot of potential endings. It would interesting to know how often she walked in general, and to the gallery (for money or not) to the gallery.

 

[Friday Fan]

If she was hitchhiking, maybe the gallery was her 2nd destination and she went somewhere further away first. That opens up the possibility that she wasn't kidnapped and something actually happened at the 2nd location.

Construction workers saw a girl hitchhiking, and it was later deemed Amy based on a fairly common appearance at the time. Unless one of them knew her, or saw her face long enough to (accurately) ID her we don't know it was her.

But if she did get a ride for even a short distance it would make sense she knew the driver or other occupant/s or both and as @Friday Fan said, took it as an opportunity to catch up (pre texts, etc). It would seem easy enough to verify with her friends if she indeed had lunch plans. If not, but she was going to the gallery for money, there are a lot of potential endings. It would interesting to know how often she walked in general, and to the gallery (for money or not) to the gallery.

I'm pretty sure she walked the route alot. If her and any of her friends wanted to get ice cream or hang out at the park or anything, that would be the direction she would go. There is a memorial garden that her brother created for her at one of the parks. The marina is also there. Any shopping would be near her dad's gallery. The main road to downtown Miami is just north of her dad's gallery.

This road she walked along appeared very quiet and secluded. It probably felt safe and was safe 99.9% of the time. Quiet and secluded provides good cover. Plus there is lots of vegetation. There were three boarding schools between her house and her father's gallery. Maybe a perp had a habit of spying on students at those schools.

This would be near where here father's office was in 1974. (Downtown Coconut Grove)

Pic from this blog: Coconut Grove Grapevine: Reminiscing


There are tons of pics of Coconut Grove in the 1970's. There is even a FB group about growing up in Coconut Grove. It's always been a hipster place. It evolved into an LGBT hangout, so there are lots of pics because so many have old connections.

There's even an article about Amy's brother and his stonework. (He's mentioned in several blogs) Everything seems connected and organic. Sorta Margaritaville meets hippies.

The Long and Lasting Shadow of Amy Billig - Coconut Grove Spotlight

Josh Billig reflects on the deep emotional impact of his sister Amy's unsolved disappearance 50 years ago in Coconut Grove, revealing the lasting sorrow that permeates their family and community.

coconutgrovespotlight.com

Amy Billig Meditation Garden - Google Search

 

[dotr]

Reminds me of RH (Lisk) imo, rbbm.

Henry johnson Blair​

Amy Billig

Real Name: Amy Billig Nicknames: Last name sometimes misspelled "Billing" or "Bilig" Location: Coconut Grove, Florida Date: March 5, 1974 Date of Birth: January 9, 1957 Height: 5' 5" Weight: 110 lbs. Marital Status: Single Characteristics: Caucasian female with brown hair and brown eyes. Amy has...

unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com

The Night Caller: 21 Years of Unspeakable Grief (Published 1995)

www.nytimes.com

By Mireya Navarro Dec. 3, 1995

''But her disappearance in itself was only one cause for their grief. Another was the telephone calls that came at night, from a man who claimed to be the abductor and who described the things he was doing to their child.
Those calls continued, off and on, for 21 years.''

''Mr. Blair, married and the father of two children, is a decorated 24-year veteran of the United States Customs Service, a special agent who oversees drug interdiction at the Port of Miami and on the Miami River.''

''Throughout the ordeal, the one constant in their lives was the caller -- Mrs. Billig describes his voice as "low, threatening" -- from whom they began hearing within weeks of the disappearance. In one call, according to court documents filed in the case against Mr. Blair, the man told Mrs. Billig that "she would be abducted like her daughter and sold into a slave trade." In another, he told her she only had two weeks to live.
The caller never demanded ransom. Mrs. Billig, who took most of the calls and taped some of them, said that "he wanted a mother and daughter sex thing." Often she would hang up on him. But sometimes she would talk to him for a couple of minutes, begging him to "have a heart." Once, when she asked him to put her daughter on the phone, he said he had cut out Amy's tongue.''


''The Customs Service office here has placed Mr. Blair on paid administrative leave while the case against him is pending. His colleagues, who know him as Hank, are disbelieving. They describe him as honest, hard-working and affable.''

 

[Sweetluv]

Does the picture of the van in front of the wall with vines still exist and has the photograph ever been made public?

 

[Friday Fan]

I don't believe any of the cast of characters who injected themselves into this case.
They all seem like attention seeking scammers to me.

 

[EuropeanSearcher]

Was she tried for Boca Raton doe?

 

[Sweetluv]

March 5, 1974..what happened to Amy!?

 

[dotr]

by Mike Clary on May 7, 2024

The Long and Lasting Shadow of Amy Billig - Coconut Grove Spotlight

Josh Billig reflects on the deep emotional impact of his sister Amy's unsolved disappearance 50 years ago in Coconut Grove, revealing the lasting sorrow that permeates their family and community.

coconutgrovespotlight.com

Josh Billig on the memorial bench he built for his sister Amy in Coconut Grove’s Peacock Park, a serene tribute nestled among palm trees and mangroves. (Patrick Farrell for the Spotlight.

 

[Sweetluv]

Amy's camera that was found...was LE able to lift any fingerprints?

 

[KDiz24]

Amy's camera that was found...was LE able to lift any fingerprints?

I’m going to assume they did not/were not able to. I’ve never heard it mentioned anywhere.

Also, camera was found on March 18th by a hitchhiker at the Wildwood Exit of the Florida Turnpike. ~4 Hour Drive from Coconut Grove.

Amy was abducted on March 5th, so assuming the camera was discarded there within the next couple of days, the camera could’ve sat outside for 10-12 days.

Even if we assume no rain because March and not rainy season in Florida, just the moisture from the morning dew over the span of 10 days I’m assuming would wreak havoc on potential fingerprints.

 

[Markybug]

Did the photo on her camera of a white van that “matched” the one Hank had come to anything?

 

[KDiz24]

Did the photo on her camera of a white van that “matched” the one Hank had come to anything?

I don’t believe so.

I thought it was strange that he wasn’t looked into a bit more in regards to her abduction, or if he was there isn’t any mention of it in newspaper articles or anything like that.

Also thought it was strange that upon his release from prison, it doesn’t look like anyone from the media ever tried to contact him and question him.

 

[Gee_rich1]

Could someone put out a rule out list of the unidentified females compared against Any please? Mainly because I want to know if she’s been compared to a UID female found in Howard Florida on June 19th 1974. The only reason I chose this UID was because of the facial and body description, plus the fact that she was found wearing a blouse, which Amy was said to have worn, plus the cork type shoes/heels. Many thanks!

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

 

[Sweetluv]

Could someone put out a rule out list of the unidentified females compared against Any please? Mainly because I want to know if she’s been compared to a UID female found in Howard Florida on June 19th 1974. The only reason I chose this UID was because of the facial and body description, plus the fact that she was found wearing a blouse, which Amy was said to have worn, plus the cork type shoes/heels. Many thanks!

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

@Caring1...would you please post a rule out list? Thanks in advance.

 

[Caring1]

@Caring1...would you please post a rule out list? Thanks in advance.

There are a couple of dups in the list.

Exclusions:

 

[Warwick1991]

Could someone put out a rule out list of the unidentified females compared against Any please? Mainly because I want to know if she’s been compared to a UID female found in Howard Florida on June 19th 1974. The only reason I chose this UID was because of the facial and body description, plus the fact that she was found wearing a blouse, which Amy was said to have worn, plus the cork type shoes/heels. Many thanks!

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

I don't see her on the rule out list... Howard is in Miami Dade County, and I didn't notice anyone found there in June 1974 on it.

 

[KDiz24]

I don't see her on the rule out list... Howard is in Miami Dade County, and I didn't notice anyone found there in June 1974 on it.

I’m almost certain that “Howard” was a typo and meant to be ‘Broward’ County.

On 6/19/1974 an unidentified woman was found in a canal alongside Hiatus Road, about a mile South of State Road 84, and less than a 1/4 mile North of Orange Drive.

An accompanying news article from a couple days later listed the items along with the picture that the OP posted.

Two things that makes me think it’s not Amy Billig is that the unidentified woman was found with a can of “Protecta Mace” on her person—and in all the articles, podcasts, books, etc. that I’ve read about Amy’s disappearance, I’ve never once heard that she carried mace and/or was the type of person to carry mace.

Also the Jane Doe was said to have had no identifying scars or anything, and Amy had a 2 inch appendectomy scar.

It does seem rather odd though that she hasn’t been ruled out as Amy though, given the timeframe (3 months after Amy’s abduction), the proximity from Amy’s home (~30 minutes) and that The Outlaws Clubhouse was probably ~15 minutes from where the unidentified woman was found.

 

[Friday Fan]

I’m almost certain that “Howard” was a typo and meant to be ‘Broward’ County.

On 6/19/1974 an unidentified woman was found in a canal alongside Hiatus Road, about a mile South of State Road 84, and less than a 1/4 mile North of Orange Drive.

An accompanying news article from a couple days later listed the items along with the picture that the OP posted.

Two things that makes me think it’s not Amy Billig is that the unidentified woman was found with a can of “Protecta Mace” on her person—and in all the articles, podcasts, books, etc. that I’ve read about Amy’s disappearance, I’ve never once heard that she carried mace and/or was the type of person to carry mace.

Also the Jane Doe was said to have had no identifying scars or anything, and Amy had a 2 inch appendectomy scar.

It does seem rather odd though that she hasn’t been ruled out as Amy though, given the timeframe (3 months after Amy’s abduction), the proximity from Amy’s home (~30 minutes) and that The Outlaws Clubhouse was probably ~15 minutes from where the unidentified woman was found.

I don't think it's Amy.

She was probably ruled out the day the body was found! NAMUS probably just doesn't have it in their records.